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Introduction
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The registry is what keeps your computer running; it tells the computer what to do when certain events happen. However, as you use your computer, a lot of unwanted and unnecessary information is written into the registry, and this usually occurs because you've installed and uninstalled programs or updated versions of existing programs. This gradual accumulation of unneeded or incorrect information will, over time, slow the speed of your computer. A registry cleaner tries to get rid of this unwanted data and restore your PC to full speed. The problem is that the cleaning process is less than perfect. In particular, there is always a small risk that the registry cleaner may incorrectly remove data that is actually needed. In the worst case scenario, your PC may become unusable as a result. That's why it's absolutely essential that you backup your registry before using a registry cleaner. For most users the easiest way to do this is to create a system checkpoint. An even better way is to use a drive-imaging program to create a snapshot of Windows, which you can use for system recovery if needed. As an added layer of protection, that may actually be more effective than System Restore, consider using the excellent ERUNT utility. This ever-present risk of problems is why the "best" registry cleaner is the one that causes the fewest problems, rather than the one that finds the greatest number of registry errors. Thus it is evident, a registry cleaner is - if at all - a tool reserved for the experienced user. The inexperienced may be assured that since the introduction of Windows XP, registry cleaning is no longer a crucial issue for the stability, security and performance of your system. Don't mess around with it!
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I updated my Eusing to v. 2.6 yet.
Some added Features in v. 2.6:
- Improved Windows 7 support.
- Ignore those registry items which can not be deleted in the next scan.
I advice this excellent and very trusty reg. cleaner. I only use it and MV RegClean!
Most interesting discussion, dudes. I take it that almost all the contributors will want to take advantage of the "comments" invitation at the end of:
http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/article/registry_cleaner_why.htm
RegSeeker
Hi, I use a combination of Eusing Registry Cleaner + CCleaner + Erunt (all freeware). I find that they work well to keep my PC running well. My favourite 'must have' software is Erunt as it takes a copy of my registry automatically every time I power up my PC (for a period of about 30 days) therefore when I download a piece of software which corrupts my registy, I can choose to restore my registry to any day in the past month. It has saved me from having to reload windows and all my software on several occasions. I would not be without it.
Whats the straight dope on Advance Systemcare Free? Cnet has it at No. 1!
Sorry, but we do not recommend IObit products anymore on the site, because of the MBAM issue. Search about it on Google, if you don't already know about it.
I dunno. My computer was running slowly. I ran CCleaner and Eusing cleaner on it, and now it runs more quickly. Maybe it's a coincidence.
I'm in shock about the number of people who have problems crashing their computers with registry cleaners. Back up what you're doing before you click the finality button and take a second or 2 to review what you're going to delete and you shouldn't have any problems. Common sense people. Use a reputable cleaner or utility package. Just because it costs 60 dollars doesn't mean it's the best. Read some reviews and consider the source. Remember, it's not hard for a lot of these companies to find these award shields to put at the end of their sales pitch. Read , read, read and use your God given common sense before you click the delete button and you shouldn't have problems.
I use a registry cleaner once in a while (usually CCleaner), but I UNCHECK all of the "problems" it finds, and then go through them one by one, and only check the entries I'm sure about. IMO this is the best way to use a cleaner safely. I've also used the Auslogics cleaner on my laptop (messed up by install/uninstall errors) but again, I didn't mess with most of the several hundred "problems" it found---only the few I was absolutely sure about.
According to Mark Russinovich of SysInternals fame, and now a Technical Fellow at Microsoft, the only time cleaning or defragmentation of the Registry on post NT 4 operating systems is useful is if you are running Windows 2000 server, terminal server, and have 1000s of user profiles.
I read his stuff, guess it would be a hoot to meet and chat with him, and on this issue I think I'll bow to his greater knowledge :)
Rik Mayell - Category Editor, Best Free Windows 7 / Vista 64 bit Software
These utilities will backup your registry and optimise it;
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
For more info;
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/ntregopt.txt
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/faq.htm
Some interesting reads here! :)
Unfortunately one can not administer various hard and software by popular acclaim. One has to do it right based on the facts. The only real problem is that many simply don't know the facts to begin with.
I just got back from restoring a network, on which a business depends, after three days intensive work. The owner was tearing his hair out, because it was costing him a lot of money, and he was very angry indeed that nothing worked.
Unfortunately he was responsible for the disaster himself, because he meddled with things he knew nothing about. Screaming at his employees and my technicians, inclduing myself, was not helping much either. Indeed, it became necessary to warn him that any further such nonsense would result in us leaving him to it.
He had followed this "advice" on a website;
http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/explorer.exe.html
So je deleted it, and he also used this in default mode to "clean his slow servers" ;
http://www.nkprods.com/ncleaner/help.htm
(Despite the warning given with it; To whit;
DO NOT clean using default options. Go through the available options and select what you want to be cleaned (DELETED) and what you want to keep, from every screen (module). Also be absolutely sure it's safe before adding a startup entry or removing a startup entry or before applying any option the Tweak screen (module). If you don't understand what an item represents unselect the item checkbox and check this help file for more information. )
This sort of advice by popular acclaim is absolutely ridiculous. Just because a lot of people do something doesn't make it right.
This sort of thing is what cause the majority of problems for beginners and those who are mainly "average" users. That is not an insult, it is merely a statement of fact. Any competent technician will laugh himself sick at stuff like this.
If various advice is not based on clear facts, and you understand it, then don't do it.
It doesn't really matter whether various registry cleaners work or not. If you do something wrong with one it will destroy your system. So unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing, it is best to avoid them.
If you do what a large proportion of these !!!!! 11812 AVERAGE users !!!!! do, your machine will cease to operate. That's about all there is to it! :)
nCleaner is a Very UnSafe Cleaner!!!
No improvements despite many users' Complaints!
It has NOT Updated since July 2007!
Once and a while, a guy tries to Advertise it, here.
But users NO longer Trust nCleaner, as many suffered from it!!!
There is no unsafe software, just unsafe users.
Are you sure? Have you ever heard of rogue programs? These are the programs users must be aware of!
Both of you are actually correct.
I have use Jv16 Power Tools and Ccleaner. Both are reliable. Others I've tried have made problems in applications on my computer. Steve F.
The best is Auslogics Registry Cleaner available at CNet Download.
yeah this is good and so is their disk defrager
Windows has a free registry scanner, included with other optional tools.
If they are offering it, it should be safe.
But still backup & disk image your data/computer beforehand.
I used it, and survived to write this...
http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm
marc
Wow. I never really considered using a registry cleaner to improve performance. I only use them to keep the registry as tidy as I can and remove crap left over from programs. Not necessary, but I'm kinda OCD that way. I view the results I get from the registry cleaners I use as suggestions only. I scan the list and only check things I know I can safely get rid of. If I don't know what an entry is (which happens a lot) I leave it alone.
Really, if you're not tech savvy enough to know what's safe to delete and what isn't then you shouldn't be using a registry cleaner at all.
Mark Russinovich has forgotten more Windows knowledge than anyone here can even pretend to know. If you think otherwise you are seriously deluded.
Why bother to remove them at all. I don't use registry cleaners at all and never will use one. One quote from Bill Castner and he knows his stuff.
"Summary of Registry Cleaner Software:
Do not bother with this. It it unlikely to help, it can cause harm.
There are no end-user benefits from running registry cleaners. Unecessary entries in the registry do no harm. This should not be a regular maintenance chore. It most certainly if done should not be automated.
I hold to the singular distinction I made in the beginning: there are times that a fast registry editor with search is needed to fix a single issue under Expert hands. There is no justification for the regular use of automated registry cleaning tools; and as the results above show, they are of dubious merit as the "fix" for even one-off problems that need solving."
Bill Castner
MS-MVP, Aumha VSOP & Moderator
I've been building my own computers since the time of the 386, but really have very little technical knowledge regarding software, the system, registry, etc. I just read the instructions and off I go. I have been using registry cleaners since the beggining without a problem, having little experience/knowledge of the technical aspects of computers and software as a whole. I'm not a newb, but what I do have, I was born with; Common sense, and a very logical way of thinking. I agree registry cleaners can wreak havoc, but even if you are inexperienced, and use logic and common sense, you should be fine. Here is the catch, not all are given these attributes, you must be able to look in the mirror, and ask yourself? If your attributes lye elsewhere, find a friend who has more knowledge, or just stay away from the registry period!
Quote: "since the introduction of Windows XP, registry cleaning is no longer a crucial issue."
This is not true!
It is vital and crucial that XP be cleaned of garbage left over files.
XP is a great O/S, but not infallible to left over shrapnel, DLL's, installers and uninstallers and a host of other storage problem issues. Mainly so for the Gamers, Surfers and high usage people.
Author, your statement is highly dangerous in that you may lead people to believe that XP is so good that it does not need a reasonable amount of proactive interventive and protective care.
Maybe then it's possible for you to explain this?
Mark Russinovich (Author of the "Bible", Windows Internals, co-founder of Winternals and Sysinternals, and since both companies were bought by Microsoft, now a senior Microsoft employee) was asked:
Quote:
Hi Mark, do you really think that Registry junk left by uninstalled programs could severely slow down the computer? I would like to 'hear' your opinion.
Mark Russinovich wrote:
No, even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive searches (ed. of the registry itself).
On Win2K Terminal Server systems, however, there is a limit on the total amount of Registry data that can be loaded and so large profile hives can limit the number of users that can be logged on simultaneously.
I haven't and never will implement a Registry cleaner since it's of little practical use on anything other than Win2K terminal servers and developing one that's both safe and effective requires a huge amount of application-specific knowledge
Easy. You believe this incredulous sales pitch. Mark Russinovich's (and others) vested interests do not necessarily mean that the systems of today, with all the updates and new types of programs, continue to follow this supposed rule or statement.
You only need to read the included info on the defrag program to see clearly that your PC DOES benefit from maintenance, at the very least, in this respect. This immediately conflicts with all Mark Russinovich's, and similarly minded peoples statements.
Ever seen "cannot find xxx.dll" or other similar warnings after supposedly correctly uninstalling a program? It's fairly common, but some may never see these. This is only one example of may different types of left over shrapnel that definitely needs to be unassociated and cleaned.
I agree that most left over stuff will not "severely" slow down the computer, but it will often noticeably slow it down, or may even interfere with some other programs and also take up valuable disk space. Not all may be true to each individual PC, but we are talking about the majority of average to high user PC.
"even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive searches (ed. of the registry itself)." This is a great statement. It says you will be impacted, but only in certain ways, and at other times you won't notice it. It's like saying your car tyres will wobble at 45MPH but you won't notice it under 40MPH or over 50MPH, so you really don't need to get your tyres balanced.
The issue is whether Cleaners have a benefit or not. There are good and bad points on both sides of the fence. If you diligently monitor the results of a "good" registry/system cleaner, you should not run into any serious issues. If you put blind faith in them and don't back-up, then you will eventually, and most certainly pay the price.
As for speeding up, yes, it is noticeable immediately, especially for systems that have heavy useage and are rarely maintained. Most noticeable is extra disk space, speedier program start-ups, and sometimes, even freeing a bit of memory that was being used on defunct programs.
So, If you don't mind all the unassociated DLL,s, Prefetch's, Uninstallers, Links, Temp's, Fragmented's, etc that eventually take up hundreds or even thousands of megabytes of hard drive space, don't use a cleaner and never Defrag.
A 'good" program is only as safe and as good as the person using it, and the purpose for which it is designed to be used.
Mark Russinovich is correct in his thinking and his statement.
His statement is limited to registry cleaners, not a system optimizer which is what you advocate using.
I don't see where he has any vested interest in using or not using registry cleaners.
Microsoft does not sell one, and if they were useful I bet one would be included in Windows like the included disk defragmenter.
You will however find a free swap/pagefile defragmenter on Mark's site.
The registry hives get loaded into memory when the OS starts and are scanned extremely quickly.
With today's processors and memory systems the entire registry is scanned in milliseconds even if bloated. Sorry, but even 10 ms is not a noticeable amount of time.
Please continue to misread others statements and then make biased comments.
I'm sure it will garner you much respect in the future.
Happy holidays.
-What software do you use?
-Registry Cleaner
-Uninstaller
-Hard Disk Defragmenter?
I agree wholeheartedly with your last sentence wherein lies the real issue with these programs because 95% of the people using them don't understand the Windows registry and what removing things from it is likely to do to their system overall.
We've now introduced defrag into the scenario as well which is a very different operation. Also, your expanded explanation is now a lot different to using words like "vital" and "crucial".
We have a responsibility here to try to strike a balance between what people want and what is possible. The other criteria is people's obsession with speed and many users will latch on to any tool which promises to increase it. What they all do with the two seconds saved opening Firefox I'll never understand, but the fact remains that they will chase for it. I appreciate the point about taking care and backing up but in real life this is something again which often doesn't happen. Nor does reading the PDF guide before install or the help files after. I fully appreciate the value of these tools as you say in the right hands but I'm also mindful of the system damage I used to see caused by them on a regular basis. It's important to understand that for many inexperienced people the reason they are attempting to use these things in the first place is because something is already not "right" with their system. In the majority of cases, using a registry tool blindly without taking other corrective measures first IMO is inviting disaster.
Does Defrag have a place here? I think so, tho somewhat obtuse, regardless of it being stated as a different operation.
Sometimes after defragging I get a report about unassociated fragments. I use a registry cleaner to then clean these up. It works effectively. What performance benefits this cleaning has is not really obvious, but I do get a fraction of disk space back. But then, the program itself takes up space.
There's no perfect way to safely do any registry cleaning, but it is useful for occassional cleaning, and once again, only if you know exactly what you are doing. I would think that this would be much less than 5% of us. I would go as far to say it is less than 1%.
If you feel you need to clean your PC for any reason, you should get it done only by a reputable professional in this field.
PS:
I am my own hypocrite as I use cleaners regularly and have suffered the ultimate consequences twice in the past 3 years (doing several hundreds, if not thousands of cleans). It only takes one mistake.
I am a big fan of cleaning out the rabbit cage known as the registry.
ALL programs leave behind more "droppings" than a herd of rabbits.
AND, most uninstallers do NOT catch them, but reg cleaning has helped me a lot.
In fact on my machine at one time I could NOT install ANYTHING that used an MSI installer. And yes, I tried all the normal methods for fixing that. I almost decided to NUKE the damned thing, BUT then I ran a 3 tier cleanse on the registry, and like magic I could use MSI installers again AND system was a boat load faster.
I use in this order on my machine:
1. RegScrubXP (older pre-.NET crap)
2. RegSeeker
and the
3. Commercial product (name removed)
By the time those 3 are done I am golden. AND BTW, they ALL create BACKUPS of ALL items removed.
Moderators comment:
Name of commercial product removed.
In all the time I spent servicing customers computers I saw more irrecoverable system damage caused by "tune up" programs, especially registry cleaners, than malware infections.
I am also a 'PC repairman". I see a few systems that are "broken" from these type of programs too. But I don't see that many in reality, compared to just stupidness or uneductaed users using all sorts of strange and exotic programs or generic hardware.
I like to think that I can educate my clients in what is good or bad, give them something good to replace what is bad etc etc, but people are people and these things will continue and hence keep me in business.
I suppose the biggest issue in these sort of cleaners is knowing what the program wants you to do, keep or delete.
I agree that a backup should be done before cleaning, however tedious this may be. Saves a bunch of heartache, time and money later.
Yep, the Rabbit Warrens and Spider Webs need to be "Spring cleaned" once in awhile. There's just so many good and reasonable free ones out there that will suit the majority, and most do a damn good job to boot. None, free or commercial will get into every crack and crevice, so why not get a bunch of them and dedicate a few minutes a month using them to make your PC happy.
Personally, I love CCleaner, Advanced System Care (I upgraded to the commercial Pro version for personal reasons and coz I'm lazy) and a very old free version of cseraser. Why? Simple! They're fast, zippy and a cinch to use. They work with Win2k to Win7, except for some unimportant aspects of cseraser.
I've got others too, but really don't need them, tho I do use them on the rare occassion just for the sake of my personal satisfaction.
Just be a bit cautious of some programs that want to delete stuff that maybe you should keep. This includes the above programs.
Have a great Xmas all.
Is anyone familiar with "Hard Drive Powerwash?" I looked at a few reviews but not much info is avaialble on the net...
My browser protection software lit up like a Christmas tree when I tried to enter this site via Google. I would not go anywhere near it!
What about this http://www.registrytechnician.com/
I've been using eusing for a few months.I thought it was a good program that finds and solves many problem each time i run it,until today.Yes,it found many problems today also,and appearently problems were solved with a single click.Though,i dont know why but i decided to restart the computer and rerun the program to see if it really does the job.No it doesnt.I saw that all those residues were still there after scanning the pc with eusing one more time.I then closed the program and reran and result was the same.All i am trying to say is that program detects the problems but unable to solve them.Besides registry back up function does not work either.So i uninstalled it and now came here to find a better option.
This is caused by locked registry items and or lack of permissions & all registry editors, uninstallers, registry cleaners have this issue. You actually have to go to extraordinary lengths to get rid of many of these items which is not really worth it. The few items that remain aren't going to hurt anything.
Google "can't delete registry items" to learn how to fix them, if it bothers you. Sysinternals has a solution using their psexec.exe.
You are right!
BTW, Eusing alert the user for that possible reason. Some entries are recreated automatically also.
The only registry cleaner I trust is either CCleaner or Tuneup Utilities 2010.
They are the safest and most reliable.
ccleaner's registry cleaner caused big problems on my XP system. Haven't been motivated to try it on Win 7 after that experience. Tune-up works much better and is one I trust, together with JV16. For free cleaners, Perfect utilities works well
Does anyone still recommend EasyCleaner?? It appears to have been abandoned and has not been updated for several years!
I give this program a big FAT "0" rating.
I ran their registry scan, removed the obsolete objects it said were obsolete, and it crashed my computer, I complained and the author just stated that it was my fault that I didn't look into the files more, back then I was naive, now I am more advanced in computing and work well with the registry.
So why should your inexperience at that time influence the rating for this program? Every registry cleaner on the planet will produce identical results on any system as soon as the right circumstances match. It's exactly like playing Russian Roulette for anyone without a high enough knowledge of the Windows registry to operate one of these programs properly. This includes being able to correctly identify items flagged for removal as being safe to do so.
My experience says: DON'T USE A REGISTRY CLEANER.
Used Wise Registry Cleaner, rated well for use with Windows 7 (Home Premium, 64 bit) and lived to regret it. Caused untold damage and anguish. Messed up the security levels for many programs and folders. Could not even uninstall a couple of programs or reinstall them, even as an Administrator.
Thank god for System Restore. Never again, certainly not with Windows 7.
Good advice indeed. I've seen this happen so many times and often to the extent that system restore could not rescue the situation and a reformat was needed. Most people believe though that this can't happen to them until it does. As I've said here many times before, in the days when I serviced PC's I saw more of this and related issues than ever I did caused by malware infections.
Quick comparison snapshot of my current xp install:
jv16 most aggressive: 34 errors
COMODO Registry Cleaner: 992 errors
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner: 2185 errors
Bit of a difference! Which one is the safest to use ?
I would go for the one that clears out the most crap, but I do scan the generated list first to see if there are any questionable entries, and if there are any that I'm not sure about, I unselect them.
In any case, I always make a proper full registry backup with erunt before doing the cleanup.
1. Using ERUNT is a very good idea in fact. Good to see you do a backup with it.
2. I don't trust in Comodo Reg. Cleaner. And I don't advice it.
3. Results differences: many times there are too much differences because some registry keys are analyzed two times. E.g.: Eusing analyzes HKU and HKCU; in fact HKCU is just a link (from HKU) - there are no need to analyze it! You can uncheck in Eusing HKCU section! See later the result.
4. Eusing is trusty - I use it and MV RegClean.
Agree that Comodo is evil on my system(s). It torpedoed mine repeatedly until I traced the cause back to it. The problem with backups is that the damage can go undetected for days/weeks and, by then, you've lost track of the cause or how to fix it.
Stick with a registry cleaner that you know, is my advice.
I agree with the last comment about ccleaner.It has never given me any problems;and on the contrary, it is one of the best cleaners I have ever used.
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